Printing multiple double-sided Word documents results wrong side being used

Question

When printing from MS Word (Office 2004 11.2.5) several Word documents in rapid succession (so the first has not finished by the time the second has been received by the printer) in double-sided layout (as per the Print Dialog option) and the first document is an odd number of pages then instead of the final page of the first document being printed with stuff just on the first side it actually contains [incorrectly] the first page of the second document on the second side.
That is -
Document 1
1-2 3-4 5-6 7
Document 2
1-2 3-4 5-6 7
end up like
1-2 3-4 5-6 7-1 2-3 4-5 6-7
instead of
1-2 3-4 5-6 7-blank 1-2 3-4 5-6 7-blank
This happens when printing to both a HP Color LaserJet 4600DN (with built-in duplex unit) and a Konica-Minolta Magicolor 7300 (also with built-in duplex unit).
The HP Color LaserJet has 160MB of RAM and a hard disk, the Konica-Minolta Magicolor has 256MB of RAM and no hard disk.
Has anyone else seen this happen and does it happen in other programs (Microsoft being notorious for the number of bugs in Office for Mac they have).

Answer 1

Hi John,
This sounds odd as each print job would exist as a separate spool file with its own job number. If it wasn't for both machines doing the same I would have said it was the printer. But as you have said Word is a rogue when it comes to printing (and man other things). In order to get the next document printing so quickly after the previous, do you have both documents open? Also, are you using the Print icon in Word, or goinf File > Print? If you are using the icon, then I would suggest trying File > Print (or Command P ) as I have seen some strange results when the icon is used.
I have also seen the "Collated" option cause unwanted results. Try disabling this in the Copies & Pages menu of the Print Dialog (and maybe saving a Preset with it disabled so it can be defaulted to this).
Regards,
Paul